How to Hire an eCommerce Virtual Assistant

Suppose you consider upscaling your eCommerce business and searching for an eCommerce virtual assistant. In that case, this article is for you, as this article is all about how to hire an eCommerce virtual assistant to help you scale your business! 

The online retail sales achieved in the third quarter of 2022 accounted for 14.8% of total sales in the United States—that volume of sales totals around $251.7 billion. Moreover, in 2021, total retail sales were $1.666.8 billion, with eCommerce sales increasing yearly. This means that businesses that have optimized themselves by adding eCommerce have increased sales and have not faced a slow decline. But before we go on, let’s briefly explain the term eCommerce site.  

Va Working On An Laptop: Hire A Virtual Ecommerce Assistant

What Is an eCommerce Business? 

Simply put, it is a site used by any company that sells products or services via the Internet. There are primary players, namely, business-to-business sites, of which Shopify is an example, and business-to-consumer sites, with Amazon being the best known. Then, there are consumer-to-consumer sites such as eBay.

Many businesses that trade via the Internet have found using a virtual assistant helpful in optimizing their online business cost-effectively, compared with hiring an on-site employee. But what is a virtual assistant? 

What Does a Virtual Assistant Contribute?

Online or virtual assistants can be handy when working remotely for a company or client. Such a VA will do the administrative, creative, and technical tasks that assist a company in functioning correctly. 

Man Shopping Online With His Credit Card

Why Should You Hire a Virtual eCommerce Assistant? 

When you began your business, the work was manageable, and you could have done it alone. But as your business has grown, the tasks and responsibilities have also increased.

Also, you are finding it harder, with more and more competitors targeting the same consumers like you – you need to stand out. 

However, there are two problems – you don’t have the money to hire a full-time on-site employee, and you lack the skills such as proper SEO knowledge or content-writing skills to keep up with your competitors.

This is where a virtual aide comes in – as they work remotely, they command lower wages, but they have the skills you need to boost your eCommerce sales.

Plus, a virtual team member does not have to work full-time. You could hire a VA only to assist during peak times, such as before and during the holiday season, to ensure that you maintain excellent customer service.

After that, you can scale down, thus saving you money. But where do you find an eCommerce virtual assistant to help you grow your business? 

How to Hire an eCommerce Virtual Assistant

To find an assistant, you can either opt for a freelance assistant or approach an agency to assist you. 

If you go the freelance route, you must go online to various sites posting adverts for the role you want to fill and then do the recruitment process yourself. That would involve checking references, conducting interviews, conducting tests, and viewing the results if needed.

This can be time-consuming, and the primary goal of hiring a virtual assistant is to reduce your stress and time spent on tasks that distract you from your core work. Also, managing them can be difficult once you have hired a freelancer. If the relationship fails, you will need to restart the whole process. 

An alternative is to go through an agency. This approach is superior and quicker. An agency will match a VA to a client’s requirements, handling the screening interviews and reference checking.

The result is that, of all the applications, only around 2% will remain – that is, the best people who have applied. If anything goes wrong, the agency will intervene and resolve any staffing problem for you. 

This way, you can stay focused on your work and not on the functioning of an HR department, keeping your overheads low. 

Virtual Assisant Updatng An Ecommerce Site

What Does a Virtual Online Assistant Do?

The type of tasks that you can outsource to virtual or online assistants are:  

  • Provide exceptional customer service 
  • The online store development or design 
  • Graphic design
  • Order processing
  • Product sourcing and research 
  • Orders and inventory management 
  • Product listings
  • Videography
  • Social media posting
  • Responding to comments on social media
  • Posting and optimizing ads.

If you go through an agency, the agency vets candidates based on the criteria you have provided, thus ensuring that you will get what you want: your tasks will be done correctly and on time.

It would be best to decide on critical lessons you want your VA to manage – programming, graphic design, SEO, blogging, customer service, or Facebook marketing

How Do I Monitor My Virtual Assistant?

A big question you must ask is how you manage a virtual assistant. A key element when hiring an online aide is proper communication, which will develop trust between you and your employee.

In addition, there are tools available to make the process easier and more effective. These tools include project management tools, such as Trello ( free to use), Tauria for communicating without any data being leaked, and tracking software that you can use to track how many hours a VA has worked.

In addition, you could also use Google Drive and Dropbox to share files. 

A Final Word: How to Hire an eCommerce Virtual Assistant

Our team at Aristo Sourcing has been assisting clients since 2014. We know how to source the best people to fill positions. More so, with 9 out of 10 clients coming from word-of-mouth, we can confidently state that we are doing something right. 

If you are a business owner and want to book a private one-on-one chat, book a call now. We are here to help you upscale and will advise you throughout your process. 

Many of our clients have long-lasting relationships with their VAs. Thus, they have benefited from the relationship that has assisted them in growing their businesses faster without compromising on quality. 

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